Archive | January, 2018

Washington : John Young, a legendary US astronaut who went into space six times, orbited the Moon and then walked on its craggy surface, has died, NASA has announced.

He was 87 and died late Friday of complications from pneumonia, the space agency said. He lived in a Houston suburb just minutes from the NASA Space Centre.

“NASA and the world have lost a pioneer,” agency administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. “We will stand on his shoulders as we look toward the next human frontier.”

Young was a man of many firsts: the only astronaut to fly in the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programmes (and the first to command a shuttle flight); and the first to fly into space six times.

He once held the world record for total time spent in space, NASA said.

Young joined Gus Grissom on the Gemini 3 mission, then commanded the first space shuttle mission in what some people called “the boldest test flight in history.” He commanded Gemini 10, the first mission to rendezvous with two other spacecraft during a single flight.

Young orbited the Moon in the Apollo-10, and made a lunar landing with Apollo-16. “In an iconic display of test pilot ‘cool,’ he landed the space shuttle (STS-9) with a fire in the back end,” NASA said.

“He was in every way the ‘astronaut’s astronaut,’” Lightfoot said. But he was also described as a savvy engineer and a “test pilot’s test pilot.”

While in the navy, Young set world records for the fastest ascension from a standing start in an F-4 Phantom-II jet.

Once, during an air-to-air missile test, Young and another pilot approached each other’s aircraft at a potentially calamitous speed of Mach 3 (2,300 miles per hour, or 3,700 kilometers per hour), according to Young’s website.

“I got a telegram from the chief of naval operations,” Young said in his understated way, “asking me not to do this any more.”

Fellow astronaut Charles Bolden called Young and Robert “Hoot” Gibson the two best pilots he had ever known.

“Never met two people like them,” he said. “Everyone else gets into an airplane; John and Hoot wear their airplane.

New Delhi : Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today sent a privilege notice against Rahul Gandhi to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for further action, holding that “prima facie there is an issue of privilege”, sources said.
Naidu sent the notice to the Lok Sabha Speaker for further action as Gandhi is a member of the Lower House.
A complaint against Rahul is already pending before the ethics committee of the Lok Sabha, chaired by BJP veteran LK Advani, after the speaker forwarded the same to it.
BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Bhupinder Yadav had given the privilege notice against the Congress president over a tweet by him in which he had questioned the authority of the Rajya Sabha and its decision.
“On examination, prima facie there is an issue of privilege,” Naidu said while referring the privilege notice to the LS Speaker, sources said.
Yadav had alleged that there is a “breach of privilege” by Rahul as he used derogatory words against Finance Minister and Leader of the House Arun Jaitley, by twisting his name.
“Dear Mr Jaitlie — thank you for reminding India that our PM never means what he says or says what he means. #BJPLies,” Gandhi said, while putting out a video of the PM’s speech against his predecessor and Jaitley’s remarks made in the RS. The BJP member said the Congress president had “deliberately twisted” the spelling of Jaitley’s surname to ‘Jaitlie’, which was “highly derogatory”.

Singapore : India’s dialogue partnership with ASEAN has evolved into a strategic partnership and the Indian diaspora provides a platform for stronger ties with the grouping, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday.

“We are here to reaffirm our commitment and to share the course of our journey ahead to the future of India and ASEAN in the world,” Swaraj told some 3,000 delegates.

“Our diaspora provides a platform for a stronger relationship between India and ASEAN countries,” she said.

Noting the 25-year milestone of ASEAN-India partnership, she said, “Our dialogue partnership has evolved into a strategic partnership.”

“India’s engagement with the ASEAN region lies in the clarity of the principles that we share. We believe that when all nations adhere to international rules and norms and when we conduct on the basis of sovereign equality and mutual respect, our nations feel secure and our economies prosper,” Swaraj said.

“As India’s economy grows its ties will deepen, its trade and investment flow will grow,” she said, emphasising that ASEAN was a part of India’s Act East Policy.

She said states play a vital role in India’s progress and advancing the country’s economic ties with the world.

She highlighted the presence of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the gathering and underlined that the North East will grow and become a bridge to South East Asia.

“Our North-East region will prosper when it is better connected to South East Asia and when the North East becomes our bridge to South East Asia, we will be closer to realising our hopes for India and ASEAN ties,” she said.

She called for addressing the common challenges in the region like creating skills for the digital age, generating jobs in the age of disruption, meeting the need of rapid urbanisation, protecting the bio-diversity and making the energy sources cleaner.

“We are moving from industrial age to information age.

“The global power balance is shifting, and the relation between nations is changing,” said Swaraj.

“There is interesting new technology but unsettled question of history still divides us. At the same time, we see progress and opportunities as never before,” said the minister.

“It is the time for India and South East Asia to work for prosperity for its people and secure a peaceful future for new generation,” she stressed.

ASEAN is India’s 4th largest trading partner, accounting for 10.2 per cent of India’s total trade.

India is ASEAN’s 7th largest trading partner. Trade is back on track and registered an 8 per cent increase in 2016-17, as compared to the previous year.

New Delhi will host a commemorative summit on January 25 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Dialogue Partnership between India and the ASEAN in which all the leaders of the grouping are expected to participate.

Washington : China shares some of the concerns of the US, about the terrorism problem in Pakistan and Washington is seeking to work with Beijing and other regional players to convince Islamabad, about the need to crack down on terror safe havens, a senior White House official has said.
As the Trump Administration is determined to eliminate terrorist safe havens in Pakistan, which is key to bring stability in Afghanistan and in the region, the official hoped that China will play a helpful role in convincing Pakistan that it is in its own national interest to crack down on these sanctuaries.

Pakistan already has deep historical ties going back to many years and they have close military ties, the official said, adding that the economic relationship is also growing with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

“But, China shares some of the concerns of the US about the terrorism problem. The US is seeking to work with other regional players and China would be one of the main ones to deal with this issue. It won’t serve China’s interests to have terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan,” the senior administration official said on condition of anonymity.

The official was quick to point out that China has been playing a more helpful role in terms of encouraging better relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It is taking a more active role in that regard.

“So, I would disagree with the assertion that China will not play a helpful role in convincing Pakistan it’s in its own interests to crack down on the sanctuaries,” the official told a group of reporters on Friday.

“Ultimately, China is also working toward a stable Afghanistan. That’s going to take them back to the same issue which are the sanctuaries in Pakistan,” the official said.

China-Pakistan relationship is already very strong and appeared unconcerned over reports that the US decision to freeze approximately USD 2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan would push Islamabad towards Beijing, the official added.

“That relationship is already very, very strong. But what we have seen is an interest by Pakistan in having a strong relationship with both the US and China. So that’s one issue.

“And the second issue is that China is also concerned about terrorism and extremism in South Asia,” the official said.

Noting that China has taken a more active role in trying to help stabilise Afghanistan, trying to improve relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the official said the US believe that the Chinese are also interested in stability in Pakistan and also for the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

“Ultimately, if they want to see stability in the region, and I think they do, they also will have an interest in seeing Pakistan crackdown on the Haqqani and Taliban network,” the senior administration official said.

New Delhi : Four persons died and two others, including a national-level powerlifter, were injured after their car met with an accident in the early hours of Sunday near the Delhi-Haryana border in northwest Delhi, the police said.

The accident took place near the Singhu border in Alipur police station area, they said.
The driver lost control over the speeding vehicle that first hit a divider and then a pole, the police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta said the deceased were identified as Tikamchand, Saurabh, Akash and Harish Roy.
The injured were identified as Saksham Yadav, a national-level powerlifter, and Rohit, he said.
It was Rohit’s birthday and the friends were celebrating it, the police said.
It is being probed whether it is a case of drunken driving since there were some liquor bottles found in the vehicle, the police said.

London : The Indian High Commission in Britain today defied a pompous ban on Indian diplomats entering gurdwaras issued by the pro-Khalistan Sikh Federation UK (SFUK). A minister at the mission visited a gurdwara in Southall in west London and met members of the Sikh community. Another visit to a gurdwara in the Midlands is planned for tomorrow.
Deputy High Commissioner Ambassador Dinesh Patnaik declared: “A gurdwara is a place of worship, it should not be politicised.”
The seniormost Indian origin MP in Britain, a former minister and Chair of the powerful Home Affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, condemned the SFUK announcement, stating, “This is an extraordinary decision and one that is deeply concerning. I hope those who made it will reflect on what they have done and review it immediately. All places of worship in the UK should be open to all.”

The International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), which has effectively evolved into SFUK, was proscribed by the British Government in 2001 under the UK’s Terrorism Act. This restraint was lifted in 2016 when Theresa May, now PM, was Home Secretary. The reason given in the House of Commons for lifting the proscription was: “There is now not sufficient evidence to support a reasonable belief that the ISYF is currently concerned in terrorism as defined by Section 3(5) of the Terrorism Act 2000.”
However, in 2012, Sikh extremists tried to assassinate Lt Gen KS Brar (retd) and his wife. In 1984, the officer had commanded Operation Bluestar to flush out terrorists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Up to 20 per cent British Sikhs are estimated to have fissiparous tendencies, as reflected by their refusal to identify themselves as ‘ethnically Indians’ in the last UK census.
In the past decade, there has been a systematic radicalisation of Sikh youths, with the British authorities paying scant attention to it.
SFUK’s latest move was a copycat action. Sikh separatists in Canada had ordered the same earlier in the week. It claimed up to 70 gurdwaras were ready for the “ban”. In recent months, it has been agitated over the arrest of UK-based Jagtar Singh Johal, detained in Punjab on suspicion of being involved in “targeted killings” in Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Khanna.
The SFUK, unnerved by a charm offensive by the Indian High Commission with celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh’s 350th birthday and Baisakhi, has termed these as “interference and anti-Sikh activities”.
It is further unsettled by Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s “connect with your roots” initiative launched in London in September 2017, aimed at countering the disinformation encountered by the younger generation of Sikhs in Britain.
Another grievance of the hardliners is the alleged lack of progress in granting amnesty to those who indulged in terrorism in Punjab, contrary to an assurance given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to local Sikh leaders during his 2015 London visit.
When approached, the British Foreign Office passed the buck. “The Home Office should be able to help you with your questions about the Terrorism Act and internal UK matters,” a press officer indicated. But a key source in the Foreign Office said it was “keeping an eye” on the SFUK and would not allow its attention-grabbing tactics to spoil UK’s bilateral ties with India.
London’s Metropolitan Police, better known as Scotland Yard, asked whether it would provide protection to Indian diplomats against potential terrorist threats in gurdwaras, responded: “The police would only attend if a crime was committed or to prevent a breach of peace.”

Chandigarh : Responding to The Tribune exclusive story revealing how UIDAI data on Aadhaar number holders is being accessed by unauthorised agents, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today claimed it was a case of “misreporting”, and that there had been no Aadhaar data breach.
The Tribune takes a look at the UIDAI claims para by para, and presents a fact check below each:
UIDAI Para 1: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has denied the media report published in The Tribune titled “Rs 500, 10 minutes, and you have access to billion Aadhaar details” and has said that it is a case of misreporting. UIDAI assured that there has not been any Aadhaar data breach. The Aadhaar data including biometric information is fully safe and secure.
Fact: Aadhaar data has been accessed by unauthorised people, and the UIDAI claim that “there has not been any Aadhaar data breach” flies in the face of that.
UIDAI Para 2: UIDAI has given the said search facility for the purpose of grievance redressal to the designated personnel and state government officials to help residents only by entering their Aadhaar number/EID. UIDAI maintains complete log and traceability of the facility and any misuse can be traced and appropriate action taken. The reported case appears to be instance of misuse of the grievance redressal search facility. As UIDAI maintains complete log and traceability of the facility, the legal action, including lodging of FIR, against the persons involved in the instant case is being done.
Fact: Here the UIDAI has admitted that a facility on their website has been “misused”. The fact is that it has been ‘misused’ to steal data — personal information such as name, date of birth, address, PIN, photo, phone number, e-mail — at will, for any Aadhaar number. Its second claim in this para that they are able to track all those who access the data only suggests that they will now be able to nab the people involved in the racket. But that does not change the fact that a large number of people have been accessing the data in an unauthorised manner probably for months, and theft has already taken place. Also, the tracking system obviously never realised that unauthorised people were accessing the data. And if FIRs are being contemplated, is that not an admission of something being amiss?
UIDAI Para 3: UIDAI reiterates that the grievance redressal search facility gives only limited access to name and other details and has no access to biometric details. UIDAI reassures that there has not been any data breach of biometric database, which remains fully safe and secure, with highest encryption at UIDAI and mere display of demographic information cannot be misused without biometrics.
Fact: The UIDAI is suggesting here that giving away of personal data is of no serious consequence. This renders meaningless its claim of November 20, 2016, that “Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure and there has been no data leak or breach at UIDAI”. It had at that time asked 210 websites of Central and state governments that had mistakenly displayed personal details of Aadhaar number holders on various websites to remove the information from public domain. It may be noted that phishing scams use precisely such information on people to try and crack their passwords for net-banking or credit cards.
UIDAI Para 4: The Aadhaar number is not a secret number. It is to be shared with authorised agencies whenever an Aadhaar holder wishes to avail certain service or benefit of government welfare scheme/s or other services. But that does not mean that the proper use of Aadhaar number poses a security or financial threat. Also, mere availability of Aadhaar number will not be a security threat or will not lead to financial/other fraud, as for a successful authentication fingerprint or iris of individual is also required.
Fact: The sharing of Aadhaar numbers with “authorised agencies” is indeed safe, but what has been revealed in the story is that unauthorised persons have gained access to people’s personal information. The Tribune correspondent was also able to enter biometric data of specific individuals who were available at hand — at an unauthorised location — to print out Aadhaar cards. That is a partial breach of the biometric data too, even if biometric data was not downloaded.
UIDAI Para 5: Claims of bypassing or duping the Aadhaar enrolment system are totally unfounded. Aadhaar data is fully safe and secure and has robust uncompromised security. The UIDAI Data Centres are infrastructure of critical importance and are protected accordingly with high technology conforming to the best standards of security and also by legal provisions.
Fact: To say that “claims of bypassing” the system are unfounded is to deny facts staring everyone in the face. If unauthorised people can log into government data and download it, how is that not “bypassing”?
Meanwhile, the BJP through its official Twitter handle has called The Tribune report “fake news”

Washington : The US has suspended more than USD 1.15 billion security assistance to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of harbouring terror groups like the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network within its border and showing unwillingness to take “decisive actions” against them.
The freezing of all security assistance to Pakistan comes days after President Donald Trump in a New Year tweet accused Pakistan of giving nothing to the US but “lies and deceit” and providing “safe haven” to terrorists in return for USD 33 billion aid over the last 15 years.
Prominent among the suspended amount include USD 255 million in Foreign Military Funding (FMF) for the fiscal year 2016 as mandated by the Congress.
In addition, the Department of Defence has suspended the entire USD 900 million of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) money to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2017.
“Today we can confirm that we are suspending national security assistance only, to Pakistan at this time until the Pakistani government takes decisive action against groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network. We consider them to be destabilising the region and also targeting US personnel. The US will suspend that kind of security assistance to Pakistan,” State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters.
The US, she said, would not be delivering military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan unless it was required by law.
Referring to the new South Asia Policy announced by Trump in August, Nauert said despite a sustained high-level engagement by this administration with the government of Pakistan, the Taliban and the Haqqani Network continued to find sanctuary inside Pakistan as they plotted to destabilise Afghanistan and also attacked the US and allied personnel.
Department of Defence Spokesperson Lt Col Mike Andrews told PTI that the National Defence Authorisation Act, 2017, provided up to USD 900 million for Pakistan in CSF.
Of these funds, USD 400 million can only be released if the Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis certified that the Pakistan government had taken specific actions against the Haqqani Network.
“At this stage all Fiscal Year 17 CSF have been suspended, so that’s the entire amount of USD 900 million,” Andrews said.
During an interaction with Pentagon reporters, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis did not respond to question if he was in favour of cutting off the aid to Pakistan.
“I prefer not to address that right now because it’s obviously still being formulated as policy. But I’ll give my advice on it to the President. I also agree on some confidentiality there,” he said.
According to a senior State Department official, no decision has been taken on the fate of USD 255 million security assistance to Pakistan for the fiscal year 2017.
The deadline for that is September 30 this year.
Mattis, along with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, had travelled to Pakistan in recent months to deliver tough message to their leadership. So, this action should not come as a surprise to them, Nauert said.
“They may say it’s a surprise, but what is no surprise is that the President has expressed his concerns, Secretary Tillerson has expressed his concerns, as has Secretary Mattis, and I imagine many other government officials having those conversations with Pakistan,” Nauert said.
Now, the money that had been suspended at this time did not mean that it would be suspended forever, she said.
“Pakistan has the ability to get this money back, in the future, but they have to take decisive action. They have to take decisive steps,” she added.
“People have long asked, why don’t you do more about Pakistan, and I think this sort of answers that question. Obviously, Pakistan is important, an important relationship to the US, because together we can work hard to combat terrorism. Perhaps no other country has suffered more from terrorism than Pakistan and many other countries in that part of the region,” she said.
“They understand that, but still they aren’t taking the steps that they need to take in order to fight terrorism,” she said.
In an interaction with reporters, two senior state department officials asserted that such a move is not a punishment, but to provide an incentive to Pakistan to take more action against terrorist groups.
“We have not done anything that’s irreversible here. All this funding is available to Pakistan, if they undertake to take the measures that we’ve asked of them,” a senior administration official said in response to a question.
Noting that a country is going to react very differently to an irreversible step, the official hoped Pakistan would react differently that they would react to something which is reversible.
“Pakistanis have repeatedly said they don’t care about this money. What matters I think to the Pakistanis is that it is the symbolism of doing this that it represents a deterioration of our relationship that they care about a great deal,” the official said.
“So we were hoping that this is an incentive that they don’t want to see this relationship deteriorate any further and that they’re going to commit to working with us to try to find a way to put it on a more solid footing,” the official added.
According to another senior administration official, as part of the latest decision, the US will now not deliver military equipment or transfer security-related funds to Pakistan unless required by law.
“Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis if they’re determined to be critical for national security interests,” the official said, adding that this suspension is not a permanent cut-off at this time.
“Security assistance funding and pending deliveries will be frozen but not cancelled as we continue to hope Pakistan will take the decisive action against terrorists and the militant groups that we seek,” the official said, adding that the US did not intend to reprogram any funds at this time.
This suspension includes FMF 2016 (USD 255 million) as well as prior year FMF that has not yet been spent or delivered.
Final figures were still being calculated, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Suspension also includes coalition support funds for Pakistan.
However, the suspension does not include US civilian assistance programmes in Pakistan.
“Pakistan remains an important country in the region and in the world and has historically been a vital partner for the US,” the official said.
The State Department official defended the decision not to suspend civilian assistance.
“We all have no reason to believe that civilian assistance represents any form of leverage. The elements of the Pakistani government that need to take the steps that we’re talking about are not touched by civilian assistance. So, it wouldn’t make any sense to tie civilian assistance to those steps that we’re asking for,” the official said.
The US has been holding regular talks with Pakistan, the official said, adding that they did not believe that talks were an impasse as reported in some section of the media.
“We are having conversations on a weekly basis at senior levels with the Pakistanis. Our hope is not that they will see this as the end of the road,” the official said.
“Our hope is that they will see this as a further indication of this administration’s immense frustration with the trajectory of our relationship and that they need to be serious about taking the steps we asked in order to put it on a more solid footing,” the State Department Official said.

New Delhi : Dalit leader and MLA of Gujarat Jignesh Mevani, who is in the eye of a political storm, on Friday debunked allegations of playing any role in the recent violence and caste clash at Bhima Koregan village in Maharashtra.
He said the Maharashtra Government has registered a “frivolous” case as the RSS and the BJP are afraid of his rising popularity.

He said he neither visited Bhima Koregan nor took part in the Maharashtra bandh post the violence in Bhima Koregaon.
Mevani further said he had not made any inflammatory statement and cautioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi that if he was targeted and Dalits were tortured then he would teach him a lesson in the 2019 General Election.
He said the RSS and the BJP are against the Dalits, Muslims, farmers and youth.
Mevani further termed as “childish”, the case registered against him because the BJP arrogance of winning 150 assembly seats in the recent Gujarat elections was defeated.
He said he believed in the rule of law and therefore action should also be taken in the Koregaon incident.
The Dalit leader said his fight against casteism would continue and added that he was not against any particular caste.
Announcing his future programme, he said that a “Yuva Hunkar” rally will be organised in Delhi on January 9 to press for social justice.
Post the rally, he said he would meet the prime minister with ‘Manusmriti’ in one hand and Constitution in another and ask him to choose any one of them.

New Delhi : The Congress would consult a larger opposition before finalising its stand on the contentious bill which proposed to ban instant triple talaq and make the practice a cognisable offence, party sources said.
The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, which has already been passed in the Lok Sabha last week, is likely to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
According to sources, Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Ghulam Nabi Azad has convened a meeting of the leaders of his party (the Congress) as well as other parties in his Parliament chamber on Tuesday, before the bill is taken up.

Sources added that while the Congress was in favour of the bill as it proposed to ban instant triple talaq, whether it would press for sending it to the Select Committee, as had been the practice in the Rajya Sabha, would only be seen on Tuesday.
The party might press for amendments in the bill, including a clause for maintenance to the Muslim women and making it mandatory for the man to prove that triple talaq had not been invoked, sources said.